The Rand West City municipality has given non-compliant residents some leeway after Eskom warned about blackouts. 

The municipality owes Eskom R732-million, which has been accumulated over the past 12 years. The mayor, Gladys Khoza, said the municipality was failing to collect revenue in townships.

"We are supposed to pay Eskom R60-million per month. We only pay plus or minus R32-million per month," said Khoza.

"We can't pay our Eskom account as expected. We don't want to punish our residents. We want to work hand in hand with them. We acknowledge the impact of Covid-19 on our communities. They have the responsibility of paying their municipal bills. 

"Our collective responsibilities are to collect revenue. Our suburbs are paying for their electricity consumption, except for our townships."

Khoza said even some businesses didn't pay for electricity.

"Whenever we switch those businesses off, they illegally reconnect power. We will involve the police and red ants when disconnecting power from companies. We call on businesspeople to settle their debts.

"We plead with our communities to pay their debts. We call on all those who have tampered with their meters to come and declare their illegal activities. We know who they are. We want to exhaust all avenues before we start penalising people.

"New residential developments, like Dan Tloome and Afri-Village, have a zero non-payment. They are not paying at all. They don't want to assist the municipality by paying their bills."

Khoza said she didn't want to punish communities, but to work with them. 

"Where an account is not well-managed, the owner must come and make payment arrangements. Our indigent people must also come forward to be assisted. We are going to audit meters.

"We give them up to a month to come forward and make payment arrangements. We will implement credit control to avoid Eskom plunging us into darkness," Khoza said.

RAND WATER

In addition, the municipality owed Rand Water R140-million. 

But the acting chief financial officer, Naledi Madonsela, said the debt was not growing. 

"We can pay it. We don't have a billing crisis. We charge estimate readings where we don't access our meters," said Madonsela.

She said some residents were preventing municipal workers from taking meter readings.

Eskom's Gauteng spokesperson, Amanda Qithi, confirmed talks with the municipality.

"For now, we are not cutting their supply. That would be our last resort. We are engaging with them on how they can settle their current account. Khoza has shown us her strategies for paying their debt.

"She confirmed that some customers were not paying. We will only cut them off after exhausting all our avenues," Qithi said.